November sees fall in jobs postings for the banking and financial industry

There was also a slight fall in job postings in the IT and construction industries by 1% over the last three months, although job postings in the property sector increased by 2%. Encouragingly, there has been an overall 10% increase in job postings in November 2014 compared to the same month last year.

With fewer jobs available, the financial services, IT and construction industries saw an increase in applications per job in the period, meaning competition for jobs increased by 2% in the accountancy sector, 9% in banking, insurance and finance, 7% in construction and 3% in IT.

The totaljobs.com Barometer analyses the behaviour of 5,000 recruitersandprovides one of the most comprehensive representations of the UK job market – importantly reporting three months ahead of official ONS statistics.

Ian Burke, director at totaljobs.com, said, “Our latest Barometer data shows that recruitment has slowed down in some of the UK’s core industries – notably financial services, IT and construction. While this may come as a surprise, during the festive period it is standard practise for employers to hold off taking on new staff until January.

“While the common misconception that jobseekers do not look for work at this time of the year remains, the totaljobs.com Barometer tells us that this is not the case. With applications per job in these sectors increasing, it might be wise for employers to ramp up their recruitment efforts in the last few weeks of 2014 so that they don’t miss out on the most dedicated candidates looking for a fresh start in 2015.”